How to Start a WordPress Travel Blog in 2022: All The Know-How You Need

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who only dream of turning traveling into a full-time job and those who actually make it happen. And these people can do so without being pilots, flight attendants, or business people. These individuals are known as travel bloggers, and in several cases, they are getting paid to visit and write about their primary hobby: travel.

Before you start thinking “Oh, that’s never going to happen to me!” allow yourself to be inspired by the inspirational travel bloggers out there who make it all look like a piece of cake. 

After that, we’ll jump into some blogging tech stuff.

Top Leading WordPress Travel Blogs in 2022

Dan Flying Solo

Dan was clearly born to travel for a living. His blog, Dan Flying Solo, is undoubtedly one of the best travel blogs in the world. He was born and raised in the United Kingdom and is a fantastic writer and photographer whose work has appeared in numerous major publications, including Travel + Leisure and National Geographic. If you are looking for and software to edit photos you can choose Adobe Photoshop.

The Planet D

The Planet D is one of the best travel blogs for adventure. Dave and Deb are an award-winning travel couple from Canada who has visited over 110 countries.

In addition to providing helpful and informative travel tips, Dave and Deb are amazing photographers who share breathtaking images and videos on their blogs and social media channels. The Planet D’s informative and inspiring travel content has enriched the lives of millions of people worldwide. So it’s no surprise that they’re regarded as one of the best travel blogs. 

The Blonde Abroad

It doesn’t get any better for solo female travelers than The Blonde Abroad. But, even if you don’t fit that description, you’ll gain a lot from reading this well-known travel blog.

Kiki, the founder of The Blonde Abroad, offers incredible travel tips, how-to guides, and photo/video content from her travels worldwide. Her travel website is not only rich in scope, but it is also visually appealing. You can’t help but feel happy and inspired as you scroll through her travel blog because everything is so creatively laid out.

Atlas and Boots

Atlas & Boots has you covered if you’re looking to add to your travel bucket list. Atlas and Boots is a website dedicated to outdoor travel, including nomad lifestyle tips, hiking, diving, and other fun nature-related activities worldwide.

Kia and Peter, the blog’s creators, have climbed Mount Everest, the Arctic Circle, and Mt. Elbrus (Europe’s highest mountain). Many notable publications, including BBC Travel, Lonely Planet, The Guardian, and others, have featured them. These award-winning travel bloggers have visited some truly unique locations, so it’s no surprise that their website is ranked among the best world travel blogs.

Nomadic Matt

Last but not least, there’s Nomadic Matt! Matt has been a top player in the industry for over a decade, and he hasn’t slowed down, with his site receiving over 1 million page views per month.

What I like best about Nomadic Matt is his clear and concise writing style, as well as his advice on how to save money on travel. In addition, Matt’s website is an excellent resource for practical advice that will help you become a more knowledgeable traveler.

Matt is a New York Times best-selling author of the book “How to Travel the World on $50 a Day,” in addition to running a popular travel blog. In addition, he sells travel blogging courses and hosts his annual travel conference, Travel Con. 

Let’s get to the important stuff now. Like food and fashion blogs, travel blogs are abundant, so it’s best to start by selecting a niche, especially if you eventually want to earn money from travel blogging, that will help differentiate you from the pack because general travel blogs typically do not fare well when it comes to SEO efforts. 

How to Create a WordPress Travel Blog Six Easy Steps

Here’s what your first steps in creating a WordPress travel blog should look like: 

• Determine your niche;
• Determine the design needs for your blog. Concepts: wireframing, mood boards. 
• Select a hosting provider and install WordPress;
• Choose a WordPress theme to match the needs described in chapter 2.;
• Establish a consistent publishing schedule with eye-catching images;
• Use social media to promote your blog;

Let’s take them one by one:

How to determine your niche

There are numerous travel blog niches that you can create and fill a need for. Some people are born into their niche. Others may need more time to make a decision. Here are some questions to consider when deciding on a niche for your travel blog:

• Why do I want to start a blog?
• What stories or lessons do I enjoy telling or teaching others?
• What are my abilities, strengths, interests, and areas of expertise?
• Can I write on this subject for a long time? 

However, it’s important to mention that your niche should not be overly broad or narrow.

If you’re looking for ideas, consider the following popular travel niches:

• City blogging: Writing about your hometown (you don’t have to travel far, and you may know the subject better than most).
• Area/Region blogging: Maybe you want to focus on South America or Southeast Asia;
• Demographic-focused: Maybe you want to address Americans/holders of American passports.
• Budget travel blogging; 
• Luxury travel blogging; 
• Solo travel blogging; 
• Female travel blogging; 
• Business travel blogging; 
• Adventure travel blogging; 
• Family travel blogging;
• Seniors travel blogging; 
• Travel with disabilities blogging. 

To ensure that someone will want to read your blog, look for your competition to see a pre-existing audience for your concept. 

Here are some resources you can use to gain a better understanding of your niche and target audience:

Google Trends 

Google Trends is a free Google service that provides information on search trends. It tracks search volume across many locations and languages worldwide and indicates how frequently people search for a specific term. 

For example, this is what we got when looking at ‘India travel advice’: 

Because Google collects data from people’s searches and can help to inform their purpose, you know you’re getting an authentic depiction of what they’re engaged in.

Ubersuggest 

Type your domain name or keyword into Ubersuggest and click “search” to get: keywords, content suggestions, a keyword ranking tracker, an SEO audit, and more. This is what we found when we searched for the term “solo travel”:

Apart from the characteristics mentioned, Ubersuggest has a slew of other benefits, including:

• A clean interface that makes it simple to grasp search results;
• Access to competitor analysis;
• Cost-effectiveness. 

Although it has some excellent free features, you must subscribe to access the entire database. A monthly subscription costs $29.99 and includes a free seven-day trial.

Ahrefs

Bloggers who wish to increase their blog’s performance, the number of domains referring to it, and their Google page rank should use Ahrefs, which provides an in-depth analysis of backlinks, rivals, and keywords.

Ahrefs offers a wealth of information that can help you better understand essential aspects of your site, such as keywords, while also addressing concerns that may be harming your blog’s position.

This is how the ‘solo travel’ keyword data looks like in Ahrefs: 

Some other features of Ahrefs include:

• A comprehensive summary that allows you to see your results at a glance;
• A variety of data, such as duplicate content and performance; 
• Overall health score. 

Alternatively, you could try to be the first in your field. Find a market gap if possible. If you’re wondering, “Why hasn’t anyone done this?” do it yourself! 

Another critical factor to consider is getting to know your readers. Is it a group of teenagers looking for a quick getaway? Or are they on their way to becoming full-time nomads? What other blogs do they read? What about their media consumption?

Begin by looking at the following to get your answers:

• Social media insights: Your social media platforms provide demographic information for your current followers. You can find this on Facebook, for example, by going to “Insights” and then “People.” Then, navigate to Twitter’s “Analytics” page and click on “Audiences.”
• Google Analytics: You can access demographic information about your website visitors through your Google Analytics account. See CoSchedule’s in-depth guide for more information on where to look.

Once you know your people, it’s time to start considering the appearance of your travel. This is what I mean: 

How to Determine the Design of Your Travel Blog

You may need to learn basic wireframing for this.

What is wireframing, more precisely?

Wireframing is a method of designing a structurally sound website service. A wireframe is commonly used to layout content and functionality on a page while considering user needs and user journeys. Wireframes are used early in the development process to establish the basic structure before adding visual design and content.

Feel free to do this with a pen and paper or a design tool. It should look something like this:

Source

When wireframing, you must consider the structure of your pages, as well as where you will place images, videos, and text. Following that, you must decide on the blog’s mood, color palette, typography, and so on.

Introducing mood boards

Graphic designers and even some bloggers frequently use mood boards to plan their projects. Mood boards assist you in defining the style of your website. You can use motivating images, complementary color palettes, typography, phrases, and so on.

Example of a mood board:

Source

Mood boards are helpful for more than just interior design and home planning. They can be used to set up a workspace or plan a vacation. The whole psychology of mood boards increases aspirational goals and creative inspiration, so why not create one for your travel blog?

You’ll also need some photo editing apps to make your travel photos come alive. 

Assume you prefer to edit your images using a mobile app. In that case, many photo editing apps include a grid option that allows you to combine multiple photos into a single image and use it as inspiration for whatever project you need it for.

This method also makes it simple to share your creative process with the public by uploading your mood board to any social media platform you use, such as Instagram or Pinterest.

Since your phone is one of your best travel companions for capturing, editing and playing with your memories, here’s a list of mobile editing apps that you can use to edit your photos. 

Snapseed – Available on IOS/Android 

There’s a reason this app ranks first on our list of the best photo editing apps. This handy editing app has quickly become the go-to for photographers looking to tweak the fundamentals of a photograph, such as cropping, coloring, sharpness, and distortions. 

The app may appear confusing initially, but it is a simple, effective, and potent editing tool. It gives you complete control over photo editing. Aside from the essential tools, Snapseed supports a wide range of more advanced options such as double exposure, curve control, and filter adjustments.

VSCO – Available on IOS/Android 

This app is best known for its preset filters, similar to Instagram filters but much more varied and easier to manipulate. The extensive range of free and not-so-free VSCO filters has been designed to assist photographers in determining their style. In addition, VSCO is frequently used with Snapseed to achieve the best possible result on an image.

VSCO is not only one of the best photo editing apps; it is also a photo-sharing app. Like Instagram, users can edit photos and share them on their VSCO profiles. This enables you to create personalized albums based on specific themes.

Magic Hour – Available on IOS

Magic Hour isn’t quite a photo editor app, but if you like taking photos outside, it can save the day (literally)! This photography app assists photographers in determining when golden hour (the best light of the day) occurs, as well as how long this time range will last in your specific location.

If you’re into travel photography, you’ll understand what we mean when we talk about the ultimate goal of mastering the perfect golden hour look. Although this “look” is primarily associated with outdoor photography, it has become a famous scene for portraits since the rise of social media. 

How to Select a Hosting Provider and Install WordPress

The most convenient way to install WordPress is to use a hosting service that handles the installation for you. Many WordPress-specific hosts now provide the option of pre-installing WordPress. That means you can begin working on your WordPress site immediately after signing up for hosting. The question of “how to install WordPress” is irrelevant in this case!

When you’ve decided to use WordPress to build your website, the next step is to find the best hosting platform. With so many options available online, any new user may be perplexed when deciding on their website’s best WordPress hosting plan.

To assist you in making that decision, read this Cloudways article, which contains in-depth information and guidance on choosing your hosting provider and what factors to consider.

15 Inspiring WordPress Travel Blog Themes

Colibri

Colibri WP is more than just another WordPress theme. It’s a collection of tools and resources. It’s a WordPress theme first and foremost, with the Customizer allowing you to control practically anything. In addition, it also comes with a companion plugin that has a powerful drag-and-drop page builder.

Features of Colibri: 

• Real-time editing in the Customizer; 
• Website templates that have already been designed;
• Over 60 different front page header designs to choose from;
• Backgrounds with images and gradients;
• Backgrounds for video and slideshows;
• Section dividers with graphics;
• Global color schemes. 

Divi

Divi is a well-known WordPress theme and ultimate page builder. It includes beautiful visual effects that entice new visitors to your travel blog.

The theme includes a variety of ready-made layouts for travel websites and blogs. In addition, Divi provides you with an infinite number of customization options without requiring you to write any code. You can easily add images, video, effects, CTA buttons, contact forms, and more to your site.

Features of Divi: 

• Increased usability;
• Global Modules & Settings;
• Full-Width Functionality;
• New Footer Layouts & Widget Styling;
• Advanced Module Design Settings;
• Increased Layout Possibilities;
• Background & Border Options;
• Typography options.

Astra

Astra is a compact WordPress multipurpose theme that you can use for various websites. In addition, the theme comes with an ideal built-in template for your travel blog.

It includes a fullscreen header background image, a call to action button, featured tours sections, reviews sections, and other features. Astra is also an excellent theme for adventurers and travel agencies.

Features of Astra: 

• Superfast performance;
• Page builder integration;
• User-friendly interface;
• WooCommerce theme compatibility;
• Accessibility ready;
• SEO-friendly markup;
• Translation and RTL ready;
• 100% open source.

OceanWP

OceanWP is an excellent free WordPress blog theme that includes companion plugins to add premium features to your website.

It comes with a delightful homepage template, WooCommerce support, WPML translation support, page builder integration, and more. In addition, in the WordPress customizer, the theme offers a variety of customizable features.

Features of OceanWP:

• OceanWP Performance Benchmarks;
• Ready To Import Demos;
• Page Builder Friendly;
• Fully Customizable;
• Individual Post Controls;
• Fast & Mobile Responsive;
• WooCommerce Ready;
• Custom Hooks.

Ultra

Ultra is a multi-purpose WordPress theme that includes several pre-built websites. For example, you can quickly start your travel blog by importing a template with the 1-click demo content importer.

The theme is compatible with popular drag-and-drop page builders, allowing you to edit any page layout or create a custom landing page. It also includes a theme options panel to configure your website without editing any code.

Features of Ultra: 

• Retina ready;
• Responsive layout;
• 3 Header Styles;
• Custom logo option;
• Boxed & Full-Width Layout Options;
• Pre-Built Homepage Template;
• Unlimited Background Colors, Predefined Patterns.

Essence Pro

Essence Pro is a WordPress theme created specifically for travel blogs and tourism businesses. It is designed to keep your website running smoothly and quickly.

The theme includes a full-width header image, featured stories, and other features. In addition, it supports eCommerce, allowing you to create an online store and monetize your travel blog.

Features of Essence Pro:

• Advanced Gutenberg support;
• Accessibility ready;
• The one-click theme ready;
• Mobile responsive;
• Theme customizer;
• Translation ready;
• eCommerce ready and pre-styled for WooCommerce;
• Atomic Blocks, Genesis eNews Extended, Simple Social Icons, and WPForms Lite included.

Tropicana

This theme’s name should speak for itself. Tropicana is a stylish WordPress theme designed for travelers, digital nomads, adventurers, and beachgoers. It has the ideal vibe for starting a travel blog and growing a readership.

The theme works seamlessly with both free and premium WordPress plugins. In addition, it includes multiple page templates for a separate blog page, image gallery, and other features.

Features of Tropicana: 

• Responsive Design;
• WooCommerce Compatible; 
• Page Builder Support; 
• Custom Logo Upload Feature; 
• Live WordPress Customizer. 

The Traveler

Similar to Tropicana, we get why this one is called The Traveler. The Traveler was created specifically for travel blogs, tourism websites, and travel agency websites. Its homepage is designed in a traditional magazine, with posts displayed in a masonry grid.

It has a fullscreen background image, an Instagram feed, a full-width page template, custom widgets, social media integration, and other features.

Features of The Traveler: 

• Fully functional booking system; 
• Powerful admin panel;
• Dashboard reports and statistics;
• Fully responsive layout;

Hive

Hive is a magazine-style WordPress theme ideal for travelers and travel agencies. The theme’s main features include a minimalist design, beautiful typography, and a stunning display of featured images.

It includes a grid layout for your content, support for post formats, page templates, full-width layouts, multiple widget-ready areas, and more. In addition, Hive is ready for translation and works with WPML to create a multilingual website.

Features of Hive: 

• Versatile Layouts: Highlight each post with adaptive layouts;
• Meaningful Design: Adjust the home page to any content;
• Apply color palettes with a few clicks;
• Publish easily with the new editor.

Blossom Travel

Blossom Travel is a free WordPress theme designed for tourists, travel bloggers, travel magazines, and tour operators. It includes a newsletter subscription form to help you build an email list and increase the number of visitors to your blog.

It allows you to include Instagram photos to attract users and increase your followers. In addition, the WordPress live customizer provides simple customization options for the theme.

Features of Blossom Travel:

• Pretty mobile-friendly design;
• Unlimited typography colors; 
• 200+ Google fonts; 
• 2 header layouts; WooCommerce compatibility;
• HTML5 maps compatibility;
• Schema.org and SEO optimized; 
• Optimized for speed.

Explorer

Explorer is a stylish and adaptable WordPress travel blog theme. It has a top-level sticky navigation menu, custom logo support, and a professional homepage design.

It is effortless and straightforward to use, with only the options you will require for your travel blog. In addition, the Explorer theme comes with a variety of layouts, page builder integration, WooCommerce support, and other features.

Features of Explorer:

• Premium Soliloquy Slider to present your latest articles dynamically and freshly; 
• WordPress theme customizer to easily configure your options; 
• User-friendliness and good readability; 
• Option to preview any changes before saving them. 

Indigo

Indigo is a stylish WordPress multipurpose theme ideal for travel magazines and blogs. On top, there’s a sticky navigation menu, then a website logo, primary navigation, and an image slider.

It provides a magazine homepage layout and a traditional blog homepage layout. In addition, the theme includes one-of-a-kind custom widgets for social icons and popular posts.

Features of Indigo: 

• Compatible with the latest WordPress version;
• Multi-level drop-down menu;
• Background panel;
• Featured Services section;
• Four widget-ready sections;
• Featured images;
• Translation ready, pot file provided;
• Styling for Contact Form 7 plugin.

Noozbeat

Noozbeat is a high-quality WordPress news and magazine theme perfect for travel and adventure blogs. It displays your post blocks as featured pictures, with article titles overlaid on top.

The site uses a dynamic grid structure to present recent content. In addition, it has a widgetized template that allows you to build your homepage by dragging and dropping widgets quickly.

Features of Noozbeat: 

• Constant Updates;
• Premium Support; 
• One-Click Demo Import;
• Documentation;
• Easy Customization;
• Speed Optimization;
• SEO Ready;
• Translation Ready.

Peak

Peak is a beautiful way to show off your travel photos. This elegant WordPress theme is ideal for travel photography, tourism, and personal websites.

It includes a page title banner, different gallery layouts, page templates, slideout widgets, and more. It’s solid but straightforward to use, with thorough theme options that guide you through the setup process.

Features of Peak:

• Donation-based campaign; 
• Various payment options.
• Events integrations for campaigns;
• Issue tickets for events;
• WooCommerce integration;
• Reporting functions;
• Premium shortcode builder.

Insight

Insight is a multipurpose WordPress theme that works well for travel publications, journals, and photography blogs. It comes with various unique widgets and an utterly widgetized homepage layout that you can customize by dragging and dropping objects.

There are three color schemes available and the option to apply custom colors. In addition, the WordPress customizer and a custom theme options panel make all of the theme options easily accessible.

Features of Insight:

• Fluid and responsive layout;
• SEO optimized; 
• Theme Options Panel: you can easily change every detail of your theme to best suit your needs;
• Responsive & Retina Ready;
• Dynamic Homepage Builder;
• Features from Jetpack;
• Visual Customizer.

Neve

Neve is a sleek WordPress theme featuring dozens of pre-built demo sites, including a travel blog, travel agency, and tourist website template. In addition, it has parallax effects on the homepage to catch the attention of your visitors right away.

You can exhibit your trip activities, images, travelogs, and more on the homepage, divided into several parts. Neve is straightforward to set up and SEO-friendly.

Features of Neve: 

• Lightweight, Performance-Optimized Design;
• Header and Footer Builder;
• Importable Demo Sites;
• Compatible With Page Builder Plugins Like Elementor;
• Lots of Layout Options;
• Detailed WooCommerce Compatibility;
• Booster Features (Pro);
• White Label (Pro).

Now that you have all this information, you can play with the many WordPress travel blog themes to see which one best suits your website’s requirements. 

After you’ve decided which one to go with, you must go to the next step:

How to Post Regularly 

You’ll need to keep updating your WordPress travel blog now that it’s up and running. In addition, you’ll need to create a content calendar covering various topics and back it up with high-quality photographs of your one-of-a-kind style.

You’ll need a lot of practice time to perfect your photographic talents, but you can create a consistent publishing schedule by developing an editorial calendar.

The following factors determine the ideal publishing schedule for you:

• What is the frequency with which your competitors post; 
• What is the frequency with which you can post content that stands out;

Many travel websites publish new content every day, but this should never come at the expense of the quality of the content. It’s okay if you only post once a week first; the important thing is to plan your content.

A content calendar can help you out a great deal. 

A content calendar (sometimes known as an “editorial calendar”) is a written schedule that details when and where new material will be published in the future. Material calendars typically include upcoming articles, status updates, planned promotional activity, collaborations, and revisions to existing content.

Depending on how much content you publish, you may wish to invest in content calendar software. Consider the following alternatives:

• Loomly

Loomly has interactive guidance for writing blog posts, social media automation, and other features.

• Editorial Calendar for WordPress

This plugin is a free calendar that is simple to use and drag-and-drop. If WordPress powers your blog, this might be the best solution for you.

How to Use Social Media to Promote your WordPress Travel Blog

As a travel blogger, you’ll want to get as many visitors as possible to your site. However, given that millions of blogs are produced every day, you’ll need to think outside the box when it comes to promoting your blog.

Fortunately, in 2022, there will be many unique and creative ways to market your WordPress blog. If you become inventive, you should have no trouble persuading readers to choose your material above the competitors.

One of the most well-known advantages of having an excellent social media strategy is that you can get low-cost visitors that you wouldn’t get otherwise. However, especially if you’re a younger company, attracting traffic through avenues other than social media might be tricky.

For example, if you utilize SEO in conjunction with content marketing, it could take anywhere from six months to a year to see any actual returns. Furthermore, even if outcomes are visible, you have less control over them.

Every blog may profit from social media marketing, and travel blogs are great candidates with their image-heavy content. But, at the very least, your website should feature social share buttons, and each content should be shared across all of your social media networks.

Here’s what you can do if you want to turn your travel blog into a profitable business:

• Connect your website to Instagram; 

• Develop a social media plan;
• Use social media tools to organize your marketing activities.

Instagram and TikTok are both excellent platforms for promoting your WordPress travel blog. Few corporations in the fashion, beauty, travel, food and beverage industries run marketing campaigns that do not include, at least in part, collaborations with popular Instagram and TikTok users.

When it comes to TikTok, the sky’s the limit. You can post almost everything from product demonstrations to day-in-the-life films to dancing challenges, travel destination inspiration, and more. Furthermore, it is a low-cost and pleasant method of promoting your project. 

Final Advice

Prepare to put in a lot of effort in your WordPress travel blog and don’t expect to see immediate rewards, both financially and in terms of visitors. Still, if you put in 2 hours per day, on average, you will see good results and acquire that ideal job you’ve always wanted after a while.

A travel blog is not only a great way to capture and share your passion for travel, but it also has the potential to earn money. So first, decide whether you’ll be blogging for fun or a living, then use these tips to help you get started with your travel blog.

Now, if you liked this article, and you want to learn more about how to design a WordPress website, make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

 

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